Tzvi studied at a Hebrew elementary school in Toronya and high school in Munkács. In 1933 he joined the “Hehalutz Hatzair” movement which later became “Dror Habonim”. In 1941 Tzvi moved to Budapest. He engaged in the planning and execution of rescue and resistance operations. After the German invasion of Hungary on 19.3.1944, he was sent by the movement to Huszt in order to organize the local underground and to meet his family who was living there. He carried a gun. Tzvi returned to Budapest but with the establishment of the ghetto in Huszt he was sent there again, with Menahem Baumgarten, in order to convince the Jews to escape. As a result eleven people fled. On his way back to Budapest by train, Tzvi was caught and returned to Huszt and interrogated by the Hungarian counter-espionage. He ran away and joined his family in the ghetto. At the time of the organization of the deportations, Tzvi and his young brother, Albert, hid with a Gentile acquaintance. Tzvi’s brother could not stand the stress of hiding and joined the Jews who were being sent to Auschwitz. Tzvi waited in hiding and, when a group of Jewish forced labor workers passed in the vicinity, he joined them and arrived in Budapest. Tzvi arrived in Dés with the forced labor unit.
In August members of his movement tried to liberate him and a group of his comrades with the help of money and forged documents delivered to them by Pál Ernø. Tzvi and his friends decided to stay where they were because of the approach of the Red Army and, hopefully, their liberation. They were caught by Romanian soldiers and transferred to the Russians. Eventually they were liberated by the Jews of Gyulafehérvár (Alba-Julia).
Tzvi and his parents arrived in Bucharest where they set up a hahshara. Tzvi returned to Hungary and was active within the framework of the B’riha.
In 1946 Tzvi arrived in Italy, was enlisted in the Palmah and underwent military training. He was sent to the Zionist Congress in Basel with a group of comrades and worked there as an usher wearing the uniform of the “Jewish Brigade”. In 1947 he made aliya and was a member of Kibbutz Givat Brenner for about seven years. Tzvi resided in Ramat Hasharon.
